Atheist dad keeping his head above water...he thinks

Joe Sands

Joe Sands is a dad of six, a husband of one, and a reluctant owner of one adorable dog and one very ugly fat one. He used to own two rats, but they ate each other. Joe grew up fundamentalist and Quiverfull, married his bride, and had six kids before he blinked twice. Then, he discovered birth control, a world outside of the Bible, the beautiful diversity of humanity, and wine.

Joe Sands

Joe Sands is a dad of six, a husband of one, and a reluctant owner of one adorable dog and one very ugly fat one. He used to own two rats, but they ate each other. Joe grew up fundamentalist and Quiverfull, married his bride, and had six kids before he blinked twice. Then, he discovered birth control, a world outside of the Bible, the beautiful diversity of humanity, and wine.

EVENTS

Ban All Clergy from Bathrooms

PZ’s post today about Jessica Williams decent take-down of the infamous bathroom bills got me thinking. Why are we so focused on the dangers of transgender individuals using the bathroom of their choice? Why do we care so much about freaking bathrooms? Why not bedrooms? Daycare centers? Schools. Hell, if the fear was real, we should be firing all teachers from all school everywhere.

But the fear is a lie. The reasoning is bullshit. The rhetoric is just that – rhetoric. There is no data to back up the idea that a transgender, specifically, has ever gone into a bathroom and solicited a child – primarily based on their status as a trangender – let alone at all.

There are, though, stories of perverts who do this. But forget fake, fearmongering, bathroom stories. Let’s talk about the real sexual deviance problem in ‘Murica.

Comments

While it’s certainly an easy target to point out that the clergy have a great deal of sexual abuse going on, they’re also “perverted” by their “lifestyle choice” of being (on paper, anyway) asexual. Those that are. As sexual beings, isn’t it kinky to deny sexuality and pretend to be celibate because you’re (something mumble mumble god hates orgasms something wtf) actually I am not sure I’ve ever read anything like an explanation for when priestly celibacy came into play and why. That’s some tantric pervy shit, no matter what.

Totally late to the party, but this always makes me think of that joke where a new monk joins an abbey and after seeing brothers doing their daily work of copying scriptures from earlier copies asks the abbot why aren’t they copying from the source instead as this way you’re prone to copy any mistakes that got there in the process.
The abbot thinks it could be a good point, gets the keys from the library treasure keeper and goes down in the cellar where the oldest copy is stored. An hour passes, another, and monks start looking for him in panic. They find him banging his head against the wall: “Oh, it said “Celebrate!”, not “celibate”!”

Marcus Ranum @ # 1: I am not sure I’ve ever read anything like an explanation for when priestly celibacy came into play and why.

I don’t have any cites immediately available, but the short version is that during the early medieval period, The Church™ was losing assets due to bishops willing ecclesiastical property to their sons. Not having the clout to simply claim all clergy property as its own (much of the hierarchy, after all, consisting of younger sons of the nobility), Rome® instead ruled for cold showers. The neurotic misogynists who wrote The Holy Scriptures$ (particularly the Pauline forgeries) had already laid extensive foundations for such decrees.

Why are we so focused on the dangers of transgender individuals using the bathroom of their choice?

Transphobic bigots are the same filth who once spewed fictions like “gay people are pedophiles” and “black men want to rape white women”. They can’t incite hate when educated people cite facts to refute them. The only way to spread hate is to be loud and to repeat it incessantly to the uneducated mobs who are willing to believe without evidence.

Sometimes I think they simply have a desperate need to have something to hate. As soon as society respects and protects the rights of transgender people, the toilet-obsessed freaks will turn their hate towards some other minority.

Oh, this one really frosts my Wheaties. I got in a shouting match with The Boyfriend about Caitlyn Jenner recently. It turns out he’d been watching evangelical TV about trangender folks in bathrooms, and apparently actually believed that this posed some kind of threat. I told him in no uncertain terms that he was worried about a something that DOES NOT HAPPEN and ignoring the actual threat, which is angry straight people abusing and killing transgender folks for doing outrageous things like existing. I also told him that MTF transgender people are voluntarily taking on all the crap that women already get from straight men. I’m glad he listened to me, but I’m still appalled that this was even needed. The fear-mongering from evangelical preachers is a threat to American society, IMNSHO.

Trans people molesting people in a bathroom? While not entirely impossible, I guess, it seems highly unlikely. And if and when it ever happens it is already against the law. Sexual molestation and assault are illegal for any person, straight, gay, trans … what have you … anyone … and anywhere; mens, women’s and family bathrooms, bedroom, hallway … anywhere.

Sexual assault is already illegal for anyone, anywhere. Why is there any need to focus on trans people? Unless there is an ulterior motive …